The Minister of Justice said this Thursday that “the Government will assume its obligations in the reformulation of free justice in Portugal”, assuming before the lawyers that it is “the duty of the State to guarantee adequate compensation to these professionals”.
In a speech at the opening session of the European Conference on Access to the Legal Profession, a joint initiative of the General Council of the Portuguese Bar Association and the Institute for Access to the Legal Profession that takes place this Thursday and Friday at the Bar Association of Portugal, in Lisbon, the Minister of Justice, Catarina Sarmento e Castro highlighted the importance of free legal assistance to access the law.
This relevance, he defended, is “the reason why it is important to subject it to periodic exercises of questioning, lucid and realistic, because the ability to guarantee its effectiveness depends on that exercise.”
Assuring that “the Government will assume its obligations in the reformulation of free justice in Portugal”, the minister has indicated that the aforementioned questioning “must also demand recognition of what is being done, with the wisdom and prudence that the responsible administration of justice”. resources that we all know are limited”.
“We are committed to justice reform. And we assume, with transparency: if access to the law is a responsibility of the State, lawyers are essential elements in the system of access to the law and to the courts, so it is also the duty of the State to guarantee adequate remuneration for these professionals. , thus complying with the principle of fair remuneration”, defended Catarina Sarmento e Castro.
The head of the Ministry of Justice warned, however, that “this guarantee of compensation cannot be completely disassociated from the concrete social, that is, economic, conditions of the country,” adding that between 2015 and 2022 the Ministry of Justice spent almost one billion euros in legal assistance and related expenses, namely, payments to lawyers, medical-legal expertise, police expertise, among others.
“It will be said that he did nothing more than what he was supposed to do, and it is true. But do not underestimate the dimension of the effort that this effort reflects, and that reflects well the commitment of Portugal in this matter”, said the minister.
The former president of the Law Firm António Marinho Pinto will also attend the European Conferences this Thursday.
Source: Observadora
